About Lighting Blog

A rustic style decor can conjure up the image of cowboy/cowgirl type decoration with saddles and the old colt-45, or it can bring up memories of a hunting cabin in the mountains.  Either one offers an opportunity to express yourself in a “rustic theme.” In order to make that special place, special, be it rustic urban, or a rustic mountain place, use a unique floor lamp to convey the theme along with your favorite leather chair and soft next to the welcoming, warm fireplace. Another trick is to use natural material such as wood, wrought-iron in the room and a dried flower centerpiece for the table. A colorful quilt can also add a warm, homely touch.  Enjoy the great out-of-doors?  Bring in inside with well selected decorative pieces.

History of light goes back all the way to fire, of course. Fire was not only light, but a symbol of joy and of life-giving power, as darkness was of death and destruction. Fire is the most mysterious and impressive of all elements. In many primitive religions of the world, fire was considrered divine and omniscient. Cultures through out the ages have had sacred fires and ceremonial lights. Torches and lamps were carried in religious processions.  And several religions kept a fire burning at all times because it was considered sacred.
Today, we taking lighting much for granted because it is commonplace and it takes only a flip of a switch to dispell darkness.  Of course the advent of electicity has also made lighting unique and beautiful.  For instance, a simple

floor lamp not only eliminates darkness, but some are designed to resemble the old type torch, as well as beauty to a room. This type of lamp is called a touchiere.

Make a statement when you finish a basement by adding just the right accent light.  There is another opportunity to accent color even before you reach the basement.  Try using a sconce to light and decorate the stairway to the basement and then the rooms down the stairs.  There are designs that even appear textured and draw out that sense of comfort or happiness.  Sconces can direct light down or upward or maybe neither; just display color.  Basements usually have shadowy corners or nook where a scone would be well placed.  Use your imagination to build that dream room that you have alway wanted.  A creative light fixture could be an economically solution to expensive artwork on a wall. 

A ceiling light is very practical, but even more so is one with a fan.  There are several factors which determine a fan’s efficacy and efficiency. Each of these factors can be used as a basis for comparison when deciding between different candidate fans to purchase.

A fan’s efficacy (in other words, its ability to generate airflow) is measured by its CFM (Cubic Feet of air moved per Minute) rating. The following factors all have an effect on a fan’s CFM rating:

Length of the fan’s blades. The longer a fan’s blades are, the larger percentage of a room’s air volume upon which the fan will have a relevant impact. This factor is of greater importance in large rooms. The majority of ceiling fans come in one of three sizes (sweep diameter): 36″, 42″, or 52″.
Total surface area of the fan’s blades. The greater a blade’s surface area, the more air it is able to move. However, there can be “too much” surface area (refer to Blade surface area to air-feed ratio below).
Pitch of the fan’s blades. The angle at which the fan’s blades are tilted relative to the X-axis is referred to as the “blade pitch”. The steeper (greater) the pitch, the greater the airflow. Since increased pitch also means increased drag, only fans with well-made motors can support steep pitches. Cheaply-made fans typically have a pitch between 9 and 13 degrees. A pitch of 15 degrees and upwards is considered very good, with numbers in the 20s being the highest.
Speed of rotation. The speed at which a fan rotates, measured in RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), directly correlates to the amount of air moved. Faster rotation equals greater airflow.
Blade surface area to air-feed ratio. In general, more blade surface area means greater airflow. However, if there is too much blade surface area, there will not be adequate space between the blades for air to be drawn through. Fans which have an unusually large blade surface area, such as fans with decorative palm-leaf-style blades or many fans with six blades, do not have adequate space between the blades for an unrestricted amount of air to be drawn through. This results in reduced airflow. The effect of this ranges from negligible to dramatic, depending on the exact dimensions involved. Contrary to popular belief, more blades typically does not equal more airflow. Most four-bladed fans move more air than comparable five-bladed fans spinning at the same speed; this is indeed noticeable on five-bladed fans which have an option to install only four of the blades. Also due to this effect, the overwhelmingly vast majority of industrial fans have three blades.
Height of the fan relative to the ceiling. If a fan is too close to the ceiling, the airflow is restricted; that is, the fan will not be able to draw as much air through its blades as it has the potential to do. For this reason, “hugger”-style fans (those which mount directly to the ceiling without the use of a downrod) are all inherently disadvantaged. The distance that a fan should be mounted from the ceiling is directly correlated with its air-moving potential; no fan should be mounted with its blades closer than 24 inches to the ceiling, however that figure is often far greater with industrial fans. Unfortunately, this is often impossible in household situations due to the fact that a minimum ceiling height of nine feet would be required to meet safety codes (”blades must be mounted a minimum of seven feet from the floor”) and 8 or more feet is typically desired).  Excerpt from wikipedia.

Need a decorating tip?  Whether you are furnishing a room for the first time or redocorating it, avoid shadows.  Many rooms do not have much natural light so placememt of a floor lamp can be vital in producing the effect you want.  A reading lamp with an incondescent light, next to a comforatable chair would add warmth to a room.  A bright, colorful lamp would add a note of cheerfulmess.  Some lamps could serve both purposes.  Decorating can be exiciting when given the right tools.  Home decorating is effective when a room that reflects one’s personality.  Decorating needs to also provide functionality as well.  What better to do that than to provide living light with a beautiful lamp.

Have you had enough of that tired, drab look in the nook off of the kitchen?  Make it come alive with lighting!  You can redecorate with a change in the light fixture, make it colorful so that you greet the day with your coffee in your hand and a smile on your face.  A tiffany ceiling light can make all of the difference in that special place that you have breakfast or a glass of juice.  Any time you can surround yourself with style and a warm, comfortable feeling, you will feel better about yourself and will start the day on more of an upbeat note.  Make it a goal to change the way you face the day by changing that light fixture.  That is the first thing that I did when I bought this house and it has always made it a place that  I enjoy. 

Finally made it through high school and headed for college?  Make it extra special by making that dorm room, house or apartment more like home.   Using decorative floor lamps can make your “home away from home” more appealing by putting a personal touch to it.  It might even help to take away that homesickness that strikes during the first few months away.  So many things transpire while you are away at school and one needs a safe haven away from the fast pace of classes, assignements, sports, strangers, friends and other assorted demands.  Decorating your living area the way you want it puts it more in line with a refuge to help maintain stability in a rush, rush, rush environment.   Try it and you might be pleasantly surprized. 

The evolution of the electric light that we use in table lamps today began in the nineteenth century.  Here are some interesting facts regarding the people involved in development of the present day electic lights.  They present an interesting array of talent. This information is furnished by inventors website.

1809 -  Humphry Davy, an English chemist, invented the first electric light. Davy connected two wires to a battery and attached a charcoal strip betwween the other ends of the wires. The charged carbon glowed making the first arc lamp.

1820 - Warren De la Rue enclosed a platinum coil in an evacuated tube and passed an electric current through it. His lamp design was worked but the cost of the precious metal platinum made this an impossible invention for wide-spread use.

1835 - James Bowman Lindsay demonstrated constant electric lighting system using a prototype lightbulb.

1850 - Edward Shepard invented an electrical incandescent arc lamp using a charcoal filament. Joseph Wilson Swan started working with carbonized paper filaments the same year.

1854 - Henricg Globel, a German watchmaker, invented the first true lightbulb. He used a carbonized bamboo filament placed inside a glass bulb.

1875 - Herman Sprengel invented the mercury vacuum pump making it possible to develop a practical electric light bulb. Making a really good vacuum inside the bulb possible.

1875 - Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans patented a lightbulb.

1878 - Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914), an English physicist, was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electic lightbulb (13.5 hours). Swan used a carbon fiber filament derived from cotton.

1879 - Thomas Alva Edison invented a carbon filament that burned for forty hours. Edison placed his filament in an oxygenless bulb. (Edison evolved his designs for the lightbulb based on the 1875 patent he purchased from inventors, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans.)

1880 - Edison continued to improved his lightbulb until it could last for over 1200 hours using a bamboo-derived filament.

1903 - Willis Whitnew invented a filament that would not make the inside of a lightbulb turn dark. It was a metal-coated carbon filament (a predecessor to the tungsten filament).

1906 - The General Electric Company were the first to patent a method of making tungsten filaments for use in incandesent lightbulbs. The filaments were costly.

1910 - William David Coolidge (1873-1975) invented an improved method  of making tungsten filaments. The tungsten filament outlasted all other types of filaments and Coolidge made the costs practical.

1925 - The first frosted lightbulbs were produced.

1991 - Philips invented a lightbulb that lasts 60,000 hours. The bulb uses magnetic induction.

Selling or renting a home?  It this market, you need an edge.  Making your house more marketable could be a easy as replacing dull/drab ceiling lights with colorful and appealing one.  Floors and lighting draw the attention of those seeking to buy or rent a home.  They do not want to think of a house, a house, but a warm and comfortable home where they will spend time “away from the world”.  Even though you would not know anyone’s color scheme, you can make allowances for fixtures to fit each room.  And if you want to go that extra mile, use a ceiling light with a fan that would entice more prospects.

In the early twentieth century, different types of floor lamps were a practical household necessity. In 1910 and through to the 1940s, a very popular lamp that was very popular was the antique “bridge” lamp. This lamp is a floor lamp that is unique with its arm that sticks out from the top of the body and base. This arm is referred to as the “bridge” of the lamp. The shade is then attached at the end of the bridge over the light bulb.

The bridge lamp was made specifically for the purpose of being able to direct light where it is supposed to go and not necessarily to light an entire room. Back when these lamps were created, the homes of many of the people were built to have very high ceilings which caused a great light in the room from the ceiling light, but the light was distributed throughout the whole room which created shadows below it. If you were to sit in a chair to read or sit at a desk in order to do some work, the shadow of the person or anything else near the subject, would make the light very dim and not at all bright enough to help with what task was being performed.

The light of the bridge lamp could be put by a chair or a desk and positioned so that the light would aim directly on the actual work or book that was being used. It was a very popular lamp for this purpose but also the antique bridge lamp became a favorite lamp to decorate the shade. With the shade hanging down, you were able to have a lot more freedom when it came to decorating.
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